He has one year left to live and one book left to finish — but only if he lets someone in. Nora Kessler has spent years polishing other people’s words for a paycheck, quietly burying the novel that never sold. When a mysterious offer lands in her inbox — six figures, an ironclad NDA, and no name attached — she has no idea it will lead her to reclusive literary icon Julian Ashford: brilliant, guarded, and dying. Julian hasn’t published in six years. He hasn’t let anyone close in longer. But with time running out and one unfinished manuscript haunting him, he needs a ghostwriter ruthless enough to drag the truth out of him — and stubborn enough not to flinch when he pushes back. Three months. One remote lake house. A novel that holds the secret of a love he’s never told anyone about. What starts as sharp words and professional distance slowly becomes something neither of them planned: late nights over stolen pages, old wounds surfacing between the lines, and a connection that feels far too real for a woman who was only supposed to be hired help. As the manuscript nears its end and Julian’s health grows more fragile, Nora must decide how much of her heart she’s willing to give to a man who may not have the time to give it back. Some stories are worth finishing — even when you know how they end.

Wedding planner Ivy Sinclair has one rule: never mix business with pleasure. She broke it in Vegas, six months ago, with a stranger she never expected to see again. Now he’s standing in her client’s rehearsal dinner, in a tux, as the best man — and his name is Grant Ashford. For one agonizing wedding week, Ivy and Grant have to pretend they’re strangers while planning her sister’s perfect day. But old chemistry doesn’t stay buried, and neither does what happened in Vegas — because Ivy is carrying a secret that will change both their lives before the wedding bells ring. Between stolen glances, a wedding-day crisis, a family that’s starting to suspect, and a career-defining choice Grant never saw coming, one truth becomes impossible to ignore: some secrets can’t survive until midnight. A forced-proximity, secret-pregnancy romance about choosing love when it costs you everything else.